August 25, 2020
Updates from the Governor
Today, Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan announced that Minnesota has partnered with the nation’s leading distributor of saliva testing to create plans for a new lab in Minnesota, expanding and diversifying testing capacity for Minnesotans, creating jobs, and slowing the spread of COVID-19.
State officials are working to finalize the $14.66 million contract with Vault Health and RUCDR Infinite Biologics. Rutgers’ RUCDR Infinite Biologics holds the country’s first FDA Emergency Use AuthorizationPCR saliva test for COVID-19 while Vault Health provides logistics and telehealth services necessary to carry out the test. The planned lab will have the ability to more than double the state’s current test processing capacity. The contractors expect to have the lab up and running by early October. The funding is provided by the state’s federal CARES Act funding.
This new saliva lab will be capable of processing as many as 30,000 samples a day, if running 3 shifts. At full capacity, it would also create up to 250 jobs at its planned location in Oakdale, Minnesota. Currently, Minnesota’s testing capacity hovers between 20,000 and 22,000 tests per day. The rolling average of PCR COVID-19 tests processed daily in Minnesota labs is just under 14,000 a day.
Minnesotans will likely have three ways to access a saliva test. First, the state will set up 10 semi-permanent sites. Any Minnesotan will be able to come to these sites to perform the saliva test. Each semi-permanent location will create 15-20 temporary jobs for Minnesotans. Second, the state and other partners will be able to offer the test in mobile testing events. The saliva test requires much less PPE than a traditional swab for COVID-19 because it is self-collected under the supervision of a health professional. Third, Vault Health also provides logistics and telehealth services to perform the saliva test at home. The state has not yet defined the parameters of a mail-order testing program.
The three methods for test delivery are:
1) At-home testing supervised by a Vault Test Administrator
Residents who are eligible (state program and eligibility still in development) will be able to log onto a state-specific Vault Health website. Once they answer two questions about exposure, one about potential symptoms, the test will be ordered to a home address by Vault MD. UPS delivers the test overnight. The individual will receive instructions in the test kit to join a Zoom waiting room to be identified and have their empty tube serial number verified. They will be guided to spit, seal & preserve the contents, then return the sample to the lab in a prepaid overnight return to the lab. Test results are emailed within 72 hours. View process here: https://youtu.be/tLo6KGqqiBk
2) On-site testing, supervised by trained medical personnel
The testing entity orders test kits in bulk and leverages employees, contractors or volunteers with a medical background as “test administrators.” Vault will provide training to these administrators to conduct a “supervised spit” and to collect the samples and return to the laboratory. The main difference in the process flow is that the individual will use a mobile device to scan or manually enter on the website the serial number for the test kit handed to them on-site. Test results are emailed within 48 hours. (Alternatively, kits can be handed out onsite, with ability use the telehealth option and returned via individual overnight UPS shipping.)
3) Minnesota’s semi-permanent in-person testing locations
Vault is available to manage on-site test events at any facility where additional support or a turnkey process is required. Vault will provide an appropriately sized team to administer testing on a specified date and time conducting a specific number of tests. Vault manages large on-site workforces in government, education, factories and fulfillment centers and sports teams in their practice facilities, and works to minimize disruption or long work stoppages.
The higher test capacity, when combined with masking, social distancing, and isolation when appropriate, will help Minnesota get closer to suppressing COVID-19. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, for Minnesota to effectively mitigate the virus, the state will need to do just over 17,000 tests a day. Mitigation means keeping the size of the current outbreaks from growing and requires 10% or fewer positivity rate. To effectively suppress the virus, the state needs to do more than 63,500 tests a day. Suppression means greatly reducing new infections and keeping them low enough to safely reopen public life.
Everyone can work to reduce the spread of COVID-19
- Wear masks when in public. 10-50% of virus carriers are asymptomatic. Wearing a mask helps control the virus and has been shown to lower COVID-19 spread.
- Avoid enclosed spaces with groups of people, where the virus can linger in the air for long periods of time.
- Get tested if you have cold or flu-like symptoms – Find testing locations.
- Stay six feet away from others.
- Cover your coughs and sneezes with your elbow or sleeve, or a tissue and then throw the tissue in the trash and wash your hands afterwards.
- Washing your hands often with soap and water for 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom or before eating. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
- Avoid touching your face – especially your eyes, nose and mouth – with unwashed hands.
- Up-to-date guidance is available from the Department of Health.
Resources
- Visit mn.gov/covid19 to learn more about Minnesota’s COVID-19 Response and Preparation
- Find a testing location in your community
- CDC Situation Updates
- Apply for Unemployment Insurance
- Minnesota Department of Health Updates
- About COVID-19